Open Letter Improving London's Bus Services will be Impossible if Bus Drivers' Voices aren't Heard...and Heeded. - Public Letter to London Bus Alliance from Kevin

By blogpost 20 May 2025
London Bus Alliance
c/o Michael Roberts, Chief Executive, London TravelWatch​

cc: Mayor of London; Transport Commissioner; Deputy Mayor for Social Justice and Communities, London Victims' Commissioner; Walking and Cycling Commissioner; TfL Board Secretariat; TfL SSHR Panel Secretariat; London Assembly Transport Committee Members; House of Commons Transport Committee Members; Sharon Graham - Unite the Union; Eddie Dempsey - RMT Union; Gary Smith - GMB Union; Barry Gardiner-MP; Sian Berry - MP, Gareth Bacon - MP, Tom Kearney (@comadad); London Bus Alliance Members

Attachment: London Bus Alliance Letter to TfL (13 May 2025)

Dear Mr. Roberts,

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RE: Improving London's Bus Services
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We are writing to you because you serve as Chief Executive of London TravelWatch, the sponsor of the​

London Bus Alliance​

and

the initiator of a​

13 May public letter​

(attached, for ease of reference) addressed to​

Lorna Murphy,​

Director of Buses at Transport for London (TfL).​

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By means of introduction, we represent the London Bus Drivers Bill of Rights Campaign, an independent group of London Bus Drivers, the very people delivering the service about which London TravelWatch and London Bus Alliance's Members have had so much to comment over the years.​

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To be frank, we are dismayed by the contents of your letter and the "research" which it references——which only highlights the issue of slow bus journey times in London—because it fails to make any mention of the—
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a) Well-evidenced and long-known Poor Working Conditions of London's Bus Drivers;
b) Poor Operational Safety Performance of London Buses ​

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We Bus Drivers know that these Poor Working Conditions are a direct result of "Institutionally Unsafe" Excess Waiting Time/Mileage-based Financial Performance Incentives that have been embedded in TfL Bus Contract Performance Incentives since 2001. Because TfL's Bus Contractors are only paid for the time their buses are being driven by us and—at that—only when we are compelled to meet contracted Timeliness Targets, TfL has designed a public bus franchise model we know does not put safety first. Why? Because all the system's financial rewards flow solely from the timely performance targets that the London Bus Alliance obviously feels are paramount to all others, Safety and Bus Driver Wellbeing included.
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Since London TravelWatch claims to represent the interests of London's Public Transport Users, surely you know that TfL's own published data reveals that, since 2014—

• An average of 3 people a day have been hospitalised from a preventable Bus Safety Incident, at least one of which involves a Bus Collision;
• About every 5-6 weeks, someone has been killed in a preventable Bus Safety Incident, mostly from Bus collisions. In 2024, there was such a death every 3 weeks.
• For the past decade, 1 in 10 Deaths from Road Traffic Incidents in London has involved a TfL Bus. Based on TfL's published data it also appears that, Based on 2024's preliminary figures, we believe that chilling ratio shrank to 1 in 7. Do you agree with me that is an appalling level of lethality for public service vehicles that represent less than 1 percent of the total number of vehicles driving on London's streets at any given time?
• Since this Mayor was elected, over 100 people have been killed in preventable Bus Safety Incidents, 70% from collisions.

Simply put: for a public transport body to contract a shared public transport service that uses shared transport paths only for timeliness and mileage proves that the Mayor of London wittingly presides over a public bus operation that’s risking lives and livelihoods for the convenience of bus users. Do London TravelWatch or the London Bus Alliance speak for the tens of thousands of people whose lives and livelihoods have been adversely affected by TfL's Lethal Bus Franchise Model over the past decade? Your collective silence about Bus Safety Performance in London speaks volumes.

On Tuesday, 5 November 2024, London Bus Drivers organised a March and Rally to TfL Headquarters to demand that the Mayor and TfL immediately endorse a London Bus Workers’ Bill of Rights:
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 1.⁠ ⁠The Right to a safe work schedule without any forced overtime or loss of pay
 2.⁠ ⁠The Right to a decent and proper rest break in the working day
 3.⁠ ⁠The Right to drive a safe and well-maintained vehicle
 4.⁠ ⁠The Right to clean, serviced toilet and rest facilities on all bus routes
 5.⁠ ⁠The Right to report safety concerns without fear of retribution from TfL or employers
 6.⁠ ⁠The Right, when seriously ill and covered by a doctor's note, to not be harassed into coming into work until fit to do so
 7.⁠ ⁠The Right to relevant and timely safety training
 8.⁠ ⁠The Right to drive without being forced to answer radio messages and texts from Controllers whilst in motion
 9.⁠ ⁠⁠The Right to have all company rules in writing and clearly displayed
10.⁠ ⁠⁠The Right to be treated with dignity and respect by our employers, TfL and the public
11.⁠ ⁠The Right to Working Air Cooling in our cabs in the summer heat
12.⁠ ⁠The Right to Working Heaters in our cabs in the cold of winter​

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By incorporating the Bus Drivers' Bill of Rights in TfL’s Framework Contract for Bus Services, the Mayor would have restored the time that lethal Bus Contract Incentives have taken away from London’s Professional Bus Drivers to perform their jobs safely and with duty of care.

On 11 March 2025, Seb Dance, London's Deputy Mayor for Transport, formally rejected the Bill of Rights, to which I responded on 28 April (cf. That TfL's Franchised Bus Operation is "Institutionally Unsafe" is a fact, Mr. Dance!). In my response to the Deputy Mayor, kindly note the closing paragraph—

"We are calling on you and the Mayor to meet with a delegation of Bus Drivers and Campaign Representatives in a Public Forum—like the London Assembly or House of Commons Transport Committees—to agree (a) a timeline where TfL will to write the Bus Drivers’ Bill of Rights into its Framework Bus Contract and (b) how TfL plans to enforce and monitor these Rights being respected and adhered to by its Franchised Bus Operators This meeting will need to be televised and recorded for public scrutiny. We are not asking for what already exists. We are demanding what has never been delivered by TfL, its Franchised Bus Contractors or Unite the Union: a Safe, Respectful, Transparent and Accountable Working Environment for those who keep London moving on the UK’s largest and longest-running Franchised Public Bus Network."

If City Hall, the London Assembly and/or the Commons Transport Committee deign to host the Bus Safety Public Forum we've requested—as of today, we've not had any acknowledgement from any one of these public institutions—we'd obviously welcome representatives of London TravelWatch and the London Bus Alliance to be included in the discussion. You might be interested to know that a respected and highly-effective transport campaign group—the London Cycling Campaign (LCC)—spoke in favour of our Bill of Rights demands on 5 November 2024. If your publicly-funded organisation could be motivated to follow and research our concerns—like the LCC has done for years—we believe you'd come to a similar humane conclusion.

Let us be clear: there will be no improving London's "Bus Passenger Experience" without first improving the Bus Driver Experience, and the Mayor of London has publicly stated he's not planning to do that. In rejecting our reasonable Bill of Rights demands, the Mayor's provided us with the explanation that TfL giving London's Bus Drivers a safe system in which to work would "mean diverting resource away from delivering further improvements to London’s bus services to the potential detriment of both staff and customers." Perhaps your organisations can explain how TfL guaranteeing—inter alia—that its Bus Drivers will have—

• Access to Toilets at the end of every Bus Route;
• Bus Cabs below 40c in the summer and above Freezing in the winter; and
• Working Schedules and Rotas that don't Ensure Driver Fatigue

— would be to the detriment of London's Bus Customers?

As you are now aware, London’s twenty-thousand-plus bus drivers serve as the foundation of TfL's bus service, yet their welfare is ignored in all discussions about the future of London’s Buses and, surprisingly, Vision Zero: in our view, London TravelWatch, the London Bus Alliance and the Mayor of London are equally—and perhaps wittingly—ignorant in this regard.

Accordingly, we are calling on London TravelWatch and all stakeholders in the London Bus Alliance to:

• Publicly Acknowledge the crucial role of London Bus Drivers in London TravelWatch's and London Bus Alliance's future publications and/or public discussions about improvements to London's Bus Services;
• Assure the Public that they—like the LCC—recognise the direct link between Bus Driver Working Conditions and Bus Safety Performance;
• Campaign Publicly for the Mayor to write the London Bus Drivers’ Bill of Rights into TfL's Framework Bus Services Contract.

If your organisations truly want to improve Public Bus Transport in London, it is imperative for them to start engaging meaningfully with the people who drive Buses.

Since this is a public letter, we look forward to your public reply.

Yours sincerely,

Kevin Mustafa
On behalf of the London Bus Drivers Bill of Rights Campaign

Bill of Rights Petition:
https://www.change.org/p/mayor-of-london-write-the-bus-drivers-bill-of-rights-into-bus-contracts-now​

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Source: https://saferoxfordstreet.blogspot.com/2025/05/improving-londons-bus-services-will-be.html
Auto-imported from Tom Kearney’s blog.